The present invention relates to energy converting and storing apparatus and pertains particularly to an apparatus for converting the pitch and roll motion of a marine structure to useful electrical energy.
Many devices have been proposed in the past for converting the pitch and roll or wave energy of a body of water to electrical or other useful energy. Most of these devices, however, attempt to provide an apparatus that is responsive to all degrees of motion in an effort to obtain the maximum energy output. These devices, however, become complicated, expensive, and inefficient due to the attempt to maximize the response to all the available motion.
Examples of the prior art approach to the conversion of wave motion to useful energy is disclosed in the following U.S. patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 974,869 issued Nov. 8, 1910 to Farmer; PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 3,200,255 issued Aug. 10, 1965 to Masuda; PA0 3,204,110 issued Aug. 31, 1965 to Masuda; PA0 3,231,749 issued Jan. 25, 1966 to Hinck III; PA0 3,631,670 issued Jan. 4, 1972 to Vassilakis; PA0 3,774,048 issued Nov. 20, 1973 to Hardingham; PA0 3,912,938 issued Oct. 14, 1975 to Filipenco; and PA0 4,317,047 issued Feb. 23, 1982 to de Almada.
The Hardingham patent discloses a device for mounting in a vessel such as a powered or sailboat and taking advantage of the pitch and roll of the boat for generating electrical power. The device, however, attempts to take advantage of all possible motions of the boat to generate power and thereby becomes somewhat complicated and inefficient.
The Masuda patent, U.S. Pat. No. 3,204,110, is of interest in that it discloses a somewhat simple buoy structure which functions in response to a single axis of collection of the buoy.
The remaining patents are all of general interest in that they disclose various apparatus for converting wave energy to electrical or other forms of energy.
The present invention was developed as a simplified apparatus for mounting as a self-contained unit on boats and other such floating marine structures to take advantage of either the pitch or roll of the structure to generate electrical energy.